Dimension of Origin: Unrevealed, possibly AsgardHabitat: TemperateGravity: Earth-likeAtmosphere: Earth-likePopulation: 500-800 (estimated)Other Associated Dimensions: The Asgardian dimension is a cosmology of
inter-connected worlds of which inhabit the other known races of the Asgardian
gods. Among these are Asgard (home of the gods), Vanaheim (former home of the
Vanir), Alfheim (home of elves), Nidavellir (home of dwarves), Jotunheim (home
of the Jotuns or giants), Svartlheim (home of the dark elves), Hel (the land of
the dead) and Niffleheim (the frozen land reserved for the dishonored dead).
Among these realms is Midgard, the Norse name for Earth.

==History==

The Gods of Asgard are a race of superhumanly powerful humanoid
beings who were once worshipped by the ancient Norse and German tribes of
Western and Northern Europe between 1100 BC to 1200 AD. The Asgardians dwell in
Asgard,
a cosmology of interconnected worlds adjacent to Earth; an interdimensional
pathway between both realms known as Bifrost links Asgard to Earth, or Midgard
as it is known among the Asgardians, with a possible interdimensional access
point somewhere in Norway. The Asgardians' human worshippers in Germany called
their gods by different
names than those by which the gods were known in Scandinavia (Ancient Norway,
Sweden and Denmark): for example,
the Norse called the king of the gods Odin, whereas the Germans called him Wode
or Woden. The Vikings and Saxons also carried worship of their gods to their
outposts in Iceland, Britain and North America. The Asgardian gods no longer have
or actively seek worshippers on Earth. However,
certain Asgardian gods, notably Thor and Odin, still take active
interest in the welfare of humanity.

The precise origin of the Asgardian gods, like that of all of Earth's pantheons of
gods, is shrouded in
legend. It is believed they might have been born on Earth and relocated there at
some point in the Earth's past. According to one account, a primeval god known
as Buri emerged
from the frozen ice of Niffleheim. He sired a son, Bor, who took
Bestla, the daughter of the Rime Giant, Bolthorn, as his wife and they had three
sons, Vili, Ve and Odin,
known to the Germans as Lodur, Hoenir and Wotan, who
became members of the Aesir.
Njord,
possibly another son of Buri, sired the
Vanir. Buri was later eventually replaced as ruler of the Aesir by Bor
who was succeeded by his three sons. The Aesir and the Vanir lived in relative
peace for several generations before they finally departed Earth for another
dimension which they called Asgard. Upon departing Earth, they became known
collectively as Asgardians. Odin eventually became sole ruler of the Asgardian
gods. He took the goddess,
Frigga,
the daughter of giants, as his wife, and she
sired him a number of children, among whom,
Balder became
the most beloved of
the gods. Odin also traveled to Earth to mate with its patron goddess,
Gaea, who
appeared to him in her persona of Jord in order to sire a son whose power would
combine that of Asgard and that of Earth. Their son was the god,
Thor, who
became champion of the gods against their enemies, the Jotuns or Giants of
Jotunheim. While in battle with Utgard-Loki
and the
Jotuns, Odin slew one their leaders, Laufey, and adopted his son,
Loki, whose size
was that of a god, not that of a giant. Odin raised Loki as his son
alongside Thor and Balder, but Loki would grow jealous of their popularity among
the other gods. Eventually, he learned of a prophecy that tied Balder's death to
Ragnarok or "The Twilight of the Gods" and forced those prophecies to
come to pass. However, Odin's magicks soon restored the Asgardians to life. Just
how many incarnations of Asgard has existed is unrevealed.

Odin eventually
learned of the coming of the Third Host of the Celestials, alien beings of inconceivable
power who had influenced the evolution of humanity on Earth and who intended to
judge humanity's worthiness to survive when the Fourth Host came. Odin then
contact Zeus,
Ruler of the Olympian gods and all the other
rulers
of Earth's
gods once worshipped on Earth to discuss the threat of the Third Host of the Celestials.
The Celestials had threatened to seal off the portals of each of their godly
realms unless they promised to stop interfering in mortal affairs. Odin soon
began to make plans to thwart the Fourth Host, which would arrive roughly a millennium
later. He constructed a suit of armor with nearly invincible powers called the
Destroyer. When the time came, he withdrew all the life-forces of the Asgardians
except for Thor into himself. Odin then entered the Destroyer, animating it,
thus did battle with the Fourth Host. The Celestials annihilated the Destroyer,
but Gaea, backed by the mother-goddesses of each pantheon presented the Young
Gods to the Celestials as evidence of the potential of humanity. Thor petitioned
the other rulers of the Earth's gods as per their pact to donate the required
life energies need to restore the Odin and the rest of the Asgardians. (It is
possible that that the Asgardians' "deaths" when the Destroyer was
annihilated constituted another form of Ragnarok, and thus, the Asgardians have
survived it once more.)

In later years, the Asgardians would be
threatened by a number of menaces and threats from both within and beyond their
own dimension. Seth,
the Egyptian god of death and misfortune, invaded Asgard and subjugated the
Asgardians out of his animosity toward Odin and Thor, but he has been defeated
twice. For one of Seth's manipulations, Odin stripped the Asgardians of their
godhood and hid them as normal human beings upon Earth. This ordeal left them
ill-equipped to battle the Dark Gods, alien entities from another dimension, who
laid siege to Asgard and were finally routed by Thor, who had been trapped
briefly in
another alternate Earth. Odin eventually lost his life in battle with Surtur,
and Thor succeeded him as ruler of the Asgardians. Still bound by his vow to protect
Earth, Thor briefly merged Asgard and Earth to better protect them both. A
future incarnation of himself warned him of the future if this continued and he
separated the two worlds. Loki meanwhile grew dissatisfied with Thor's rule
and masterminded a revised Ragnarok to conquer Asgard. Thor was unable to defeat
Loki's armies and instead realized the powers controlling Asgard's numerous
incarnation of rebirth and destruction. He consulted with the shadowy beings
known as Those Who Live Above In Shadow and learned they had been behind
Asgard's cycles of rebirth. To break the cycle, Thor traveled to the roots of
Yggdrasil and severed the thread keeping Asgard in its cycles, effectively
destroying Asgard to save it.

Eventually, Thor returned to Earth
during the aftermath of the Superhuman Registration Act which mandated that all costumed superhumans
("superheroes") reveal their secret identities to the United
States Government. He recreated Asgard as a separate republic in Oklahoma. Under
unknown means, the rest of the Asgardian gods subsequently reappeared as
citizens of the Balkan kingdom of Latveria, ruled by Doctor Doom, but they later
rejoined Thor in the recreated Asgard. This Asgard was subsequently attacked and
destroyed by corrupt businessman Norman Osborn and his Dark Avengers. The
Asgardians fled Earth afterward, returning to their native dimension.

Relations to other Pantheons: At some point in the past, the Asgardian gods beheld
some enmity with the Greek and Roman gods after the Germanic tribes of the
Franks lead invasions into Italy and Northern Greece in the Fourth Century AD, but
their respective gods now seem at peace and among the most active pantheons on
Earth today. Relations with the gods of the West, the
Tuatha
de Danaan, remained strained until recent due to the Saxon and Viking
invasions to Britain and Hybernia (modern Scotland). The Asgardian connections to
the Dievans, or
Slavic gods in modern Russia, are rather undefined; they may be some overlap in their
pantheons. (The Ancient Slavs were known to adopt gods from Iran and Germany into their
pantheon). The Asgardian gods had some contact with the
Anasazi
gods of North America during the Viking exploration of Greenland and Northern
Canada which nearly lead to strife, but this was abated with the creation of the
Council
Elite.

==Characteristics==

Body Type: Humanoid
Avg. Height: 6' 0"Eyes: TwoHair: NormalSkin: NormalLimbs: TwoFingers: Five with opposable thumbToes: FiveSpecial Adaptations: The
Asgardian gods are exceptionally long-lived, but they are not immortal
like the Olympian gods; they age very slowly upon reaching adulthood, but they
are not invulnerable to death. They are physically more durable than human
beings; their skin, bone and tissue being around three times more durable and dense
than similar tissue in human beings.

Superhuman
Strength: All Asgardians
are superhumanly strong with the average Asgardian god able to lift (press) about
30 tons under optimal conditions and the average Asgardian goddess able to lift
(press) about 25 tons under optimal conditions.

Superhuman
Speed: All Asgardians have the potential of being able to run and move at speeds
much greater than the finest human athlete. Only Hermod and a few others can
supersede the majority of the Asgardian gods.

Superhuman
Stamina: The musculature
of the Asgardian gods produce considerably less fatigue toxins during physical
activity than the muscles of human beings. An average Asgardian god can exert themselves
at peak capacity for about 24 hours before fatigue impairs
them. Odin, Thor and Tyr are physically stronger than most of the Asgardian
gods.

Superhumanly
Dense Tissue: The skin,
muscle, and bone tissues of the Asgardian gods are about 3 times as dense as the same
tissue of a human body, contributing, to their superhuman strength
and weight.

Superhuman
Durability: The bodies
of the Asgardian gods are considerably more resistant to physical injury than the
bodies of human beings. Asgardian gods are capable of withstanding conventional
injury including great impact forces,
exposure to temperature and pressure extremes and falls from great heights without
sustaining physical injury.

Regenerative
Healing Factor: Despite
their natural durability, it is possible for any of the Asgardian gods to sustain
injury. However, if injured, their highly advanced metabolism enables them to
recover with superhuman speed and efficiency. As with most of their
other powers, the speed and extent of these powers varies from one Asgardian god
to
another.

Immortality: The Asgardian gods are extremely long lived, but they are
not immortal like the Olympian gods: they age at a more slower rate, but they
are not immune to the effects of aging. Their bodies are also immune to all known
Earthly diseases and infection.

Energy
Manipulation: The Asgardian gods have some potential to manipulate mystical
or cosmic energies for some
purpose. These powers are mostly limited to changing their appearance or shape,
and teleporting across great distances. However, a small minority of the
Asgardian gods are capable of manipulating vast amounts of energy for a variety of
purposes including teleportation, shapeshifting, matter manipulation,
augmentation of their physical capabilities, erecting powerful force fields,
firing powerful blasts of energy for destructive purposes and granting superhuman
attributes to objects and beings.

Known
Abilities: The Asgardian gods possess specific skills associated with their
personalities or area of expertise. For example, as the Asgardian god of thunder, Thor
has complete control and mastery of the weather whereas
Sjofn, the
Asgardian goddess of love, is highly skilled in all forms of physical and sexual
pleasure. Most of the Asgardian gods have had some degree of training in armed
and unarmed combat through private tutors or through the other gods.

==Miscellaneous==Type of Government: MonarchyLevel Of Technology: MagicCultural Traits: The Asgardian Gods were worshipped as gods in Ancient
Scandinavia including modern Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and most of
Germany down to the northern boundary of Italy. Their culture, social
structure and society resembles aspects of Pre-Germanic Teutonic Europe.

According to the Saxon Genealogies, Thor was Thracian in origin, descended
from Trojan refugees. Among his Fourth Century descendants was Woden, a Saxon chieftain who
counted Beowulf and possibly Siegfried among his descendants. Hengist
and Horsa, the Saxon Chieftain who seized Britain from the Celtic Ruler
Vortigern (predecessor of Uther Pendragon), were also descendants of Woden.
The Saxon kings are direct ancestors of the modern Royal Family of England.

The possible real life counterparts of the worlds in the Asgardian
cosmology: Asgard (Norway), Vanaheim (Germany), Ruthenia (Russia) Alfheim
(Britain), Nidavellir (Denmark), Ginnungap (the Atlantic Ocean), Jotunheim
(Italy), Svartalheim (Poland), Hel (Surtsey Island) and Niffleheim (Iceland).
(Note: Isenland appears in the legend of Sigurd, but this country is described
as once existing somewhere along the Danube River.)

It is conceivable that Yggdrasil could be the ancient name for Mount
Glittertinden in Norway, which rises up to 8,110 feet. Yggdrasil translates
as "Mountain of Ash," and ash trees are common around
Glittertinden.

Several of the figures in Norse myth appear to be based on figures handed
down from Greek mythology, particularly Njord (Poseidon), Nertha (Demeter)
and Hermod (Hermes). In fact, in some versions of the Greek Myths, the Garden of the
Hesperides was in Scandinavia, much like the golden apples of the Asgardian
Gods.

In Marvel Comics, there seem to be quite a few characters who do not seem to be
"pure" Asgardians; that is, directly related to a known figure in
Scandinavian or Germanic myth. These figures include
Amora the Enchantress, Fandral the Dashing, Hogun the Grim, Skurge the Executioner and
Volstagg. DC Comics, on the other hand, has not nearly done as much
with the Asgardian gods as Marvel, instead focusing almost entirely on the
Olympian gods.